DPRK: [Press Release] NKDB Launches Visual Atlas Expansion Mapping Forced Repatriation of North Koreans

Country: Democratic People's Republic of Korea Source: Database Center for North Korean Human Rights First-ever open database on forced repatriation links detention sites, perpetrator institutions, and survivor testimony in one publicly accessible tool SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) has launched a major expansion of its satellite mapping platform, Visual Atlas , creating an unprecedented online tool for examining decades of documented human rights violations in North Korea. Available in Korean and English at visualatlas.org, the platform allows users worldwide to explore the locations of political prison camps, public execution sites, detention facilities, and forced repatriation routes through survivor testimony, satellite imagery, institutional records, and 3D modeling. A Database Built for Accountability At the center of this update is the first-ever public database on the institutional responsibility of agencies involved in the forced repatriation of North Koreans, a system in which individuals who flee to China are captured, detained, and returned to North Korea, where they face interrogation, torture, forced labor, and in some cases execution. The Visual Atlas expansion builds on NKDB’s March 2026 report The Machinery Behind the Forced Repatriation of North Koreans in China , which demonstrates how forced repatriation occurs as a coordinated system involving Chinese authorities and North Korean security agencies. The report further concludes that Chinese actors involved in the process could amount to crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. By making the underlying institutional and geographic data publicly accessible, the Visual Atlas transforms this research into an interactive accountability tool for investigators,...

Original source: Relief Web